Prioridades globais para a conservação e características biológicas associadas ao risco de extinção em morcegos (Chiroptera:mammalia)
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2011-03-04
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Universidade Federal de Goiás
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The species loss in recent decades can be comparable to a mass extinction event. This scenario emphasizes the need for biodiversity conservation before it disappears, but the resources devoted to this purpose are limited. In this context, identifying species that possess characteristics that predispose them to a greater sensitivity to environmental changes may help understanding how species losses occur. In addition, proposals for conservation strategies from existing knowledge about species are practical ways of minimizing the loss of biodiversity. The greater ecological diversity of the order Chiroptera, when compared with other groups of mammals, suggests that this may be a good study group to research in conservation biology. In this scenario, Chapter 1 uses a scoring methodology that considered four parameters to define priorities for conservation of bats: risk of extinction, endemism, originality and the public interest. Later, we checked if priority species and areas are covered by any protected areas. It was also verified if priority areas for bats are more congruent with global priorities, focused on pro-active or reactive strategies. The three species with the highest score for conservation priority were Acerodon humilis, Acerodon jubatus and Latidens salimali. The priority areas for bat conservation are in South Amercia, Madagascar, some spots in Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesian Islands. The sites covered by reactive strategies have greater priority level for conservation of bats, but we observed both reactive and pro-active strategies, within priority boxes. Only one quarter of the priority squares for bats have 10% or more of conserved areas within I-IV criteria, idealized values for 2010 Conservation Biodiversity (CBD). The results suggest that tropical areas, which also have more species of bats, are the ones that require more attention from conservation programs and much of these areas are minimally represented by conservation units, emphasizing the importance of investments for biodiversity conservation in these locations. Both reactive and pro-active strategies are important for biodiversity maintenance of bats, despite the reactive strategies being more representative in grid cells with the highest values of priority. In chapter 2, we checked if there is a relationship between bats biological features and extinction risk. Features used were: body mass, litter size, forearm size, wing length, gestational length and age of sexual maturity. Since the relationship between these features and the risk of extinction may be biased by phylogenetic relationships, we used a Phylogenetic Eigenvectors regression analysis (PVR) to remove the phylogenetic components of predictors. All variables addressed except gestational length are phylogenetically structured. Body mass, forearm length, wing length and litter size are related to the extinction risk. Since higher residual values for body mass and forearm size are associated with extinction risk and lower residual values for wing length and litter size are more related to the extinction risk. Smaller wing length as predictor of extinction risk may be associated with the species largest mobility capacity with larger wings. Body mass is a commonly associated feature with extinction risk, and this relationship can be explained by the relationship of this variable with slow life history features, higher species threat due to hunting, greater environmental resource acquisition or larger life area. Despite the small body size in mammals is associated with the lower extinction risk, bats unlike most small mammals have a slow life history, a factor that increases the susceptibility to species extinction.
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MENDES, Poliana. Global conservation priorities and biological traits related to extinction risks in bats.. 2011. 107 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciências Biológicas - Biologia) - Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2011.